Voices

Paying for human needs is exactly where I want my taxes to go

PUTNEY — I just read a statement by the White House budget director that made my stomach turn.

In a commentary written in May, Mick Mulvaney stated that the Trump administration is “putting taxpayers first.” He wrote that “[t]aking money from someone without an intention to pay it back is not debt, it is theft.”

Think about this: if they cannot pay the expenses for their care with personal wealth, almost half the babies born in this country, the sick, the disabled, those elderly with dementia or physical limitations are considered thieves by this administration!

Of course, none of these folks will be able to reimburse the government for their care - especially with the government's refusal to negotiate prices for such items as pharmaceuticals and to keep other expenses down.

I am a taxpayer. Paying for human needs is exactly where I want my taxes to go.

I want my tax dollars to pay for universal health care and for a life with dignity for those who are unable to work and not fortunate enough to be the heir to a fortune like our mentally limited president.

The levels of irony in this sorry thinking are deep and would be humorous if the consequences of this thinking were not so serious.

This administration wants to eliminate all our protections in the financial world, to gut all consumer protections. It also is reversing protections from the thieves who stole millions of dollars from students in fraudulent private trade schools.

This is not to mention the ways in which the Trump family is raking in money by ignoring the constitutional ban on self dealing from foreign governments by hosting lucrative events at Trump properties.

As so many have said, this “health care” bill is really a multi-billion-dollar tax cut for those who have no economic needs and who will just use the money to increase their pot of gold.

So, remember this next time the Republicans tell you that the government does not have the money to pay for health care for those who need it: We support our people and their ability to live the best life possible because it is the moral thing to do.

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